Posts Categorized: Livestock

The idea of keeping chickens at home is one that appeals to a growing number of people around the world. It’s not just that you’ll get “free” eggs and chicken meat, it’s also that the produce from the chickens you keep is known to be free from all the unsavoury “stuff” (including harmful antibiotics and… Read more »

What Our Grandparents Knew About Ecology, Genetics and Ethics: “What does an animal need to have a good life? I don’t mean a good life physically. We know a lot about what kind of food, water, exercise, and veterinary care animals need to grow well and be healthy… What does an animal need to be… Read more »

A multi-species, leader follower grazing system has recently been implemented here at the Permaculture Research Institute (PRI). Multi-species grazing has been shown to improve pasture quality, control weed growth, and enhance pasture utilization (getting the most out of every blade of grass). All of these are achieved while increasing the carrying capacity, enabling more animals… Read more »

Tom Kendall from the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast describes the process after the cow manure goes through the biodigester. The biodigester compost pits and reed bed are shown and how he generates soil fertility through the cycling process is discussed.

In Part One,Tom Kendall from PRI Sunshine Coast, shows you the daily process of feeding the bio digester to make biogas. Biogas is mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. In this he shows the routines in the morning with the cows and how to ensure… Read more »

The Big Scrub is gone; destroyed by loggers and cattle farmers a century ago. What was once Australia’s largest subtropical rainforest—900km2 of biodiversity—is now largely home to cows and grass. Even between these two components many landowners still struggle to enforce balance. Thistle-covered paddies, eroded hillsides, compacted soils with sparse vegetation—scars from this struggle cover… Read more »

How one man transformed his farm from Monoculture to Permaculture. When Warren Brush bought a run down orchard near Ventura, California, he knew he was in for the ride of his life transforming it into a Permaculture farm. From an original monoculture persimmon, apple and avocado orchard, it’s a risky challenge to turn all this… Read more »

Awassi sheep ready to go to market (and random standards inspector) I’ve been to the Greening the Desert “Sequel” site three times now. Once was in 2011 when we were at the IPC in Jordan. Once was in 2012 when I went there to take an internship with Geoff and Nadia. This year I was… Read more »

Here is a simple and clever idea presented in the short video above. It’s the easiest DIY automatic chicken feeder. It can be made quickly and totally for free. You just need a bucket, knife, a thick wire and a cork. Enjoy the feeding!

I don’t have rights to a photo of intensive silvopasture, but in this image we have high density of leucaena with pasture below, thus a very similar pattern. Ethan Roland for scale. As I research my book on carbon-sequestering agriculture I am occasionally struck by particularly promising techniques that mitigate climate change, build soils, and… Read more »